


Shrugging Off the Dust and Memory

by Kalcifer



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26591365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalcifer/pseuds/Kalcifer
Summary: Mako has successfully convinced Kobus to leave the Hands of Grace compound, at least in the short term. Now all he needs to do is keep them from going back. It'll be simple.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	Shrugging Off the Dust and Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Today marks one year since the first message I can track down where I mentioned Kobus, so here's to one year of baffling character decisions and overwriting large chunks of canon. There are probably more to come.
> 
> This follows on the heels of [Telling Dreams from One Another](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21392386), but all you need to know is that one of the Makos went to actually Fog Grace when Kobus asked and they did not take learning the truth well.

The kid was silent the entire ride back to Kesh. Normally, Mako would have tried to fix that - after five years of living with his fellow Makos, silence was a little unnerving. Even on so-called stealth missions, there were always ways to whisper to the others. Silence meant something had gone horribly wrong.

Of course, from Kobus’ perspective something had gone horribly wrong, though that had been clear to the rest of the sector for ages, but even Mako, with his limited grasp of tact, could tell it was probably best not to point that out. Best to give them some space.

Besides, it gave him time to call home and figure out what to do next. It was clear they couldn’t let Kobus go back to the Diaspora. Mako recognized the expression they’d worn when he explained Grace to them. He himself had only worn it once, but his features were intimately familiar with it, versions of them shaped into it across existences and gaps in memory. It was the face of someone losing their last lifeline.

If Addax made a fuss about having them around (and wouldn’t that be hypocritical of him?), Mako would point out that they were now officially a wild card, a loose cannon who wouldn’t play by the Evening’s rules, etc. Mostly, though, he really hated the idea of leaving a child in a situation with zero support at the mercy of a crazy Divine.

The big question was how to stop them from rushing back into that situation. They seemed pretty determined to “fix” Grace, and that presumably meant hanging around waiting for an opening to say the magic words that would make her not evil. Mako would prefer not to let them hand themself back over to Grace if at all possible. (Ha. Hands, Grace, the sector was in shambles.)

He texted the Mako collective to ask for ideas, but by the time they’d made it back into the solar system, the best answer any of them could come up with was stalling. It was one of their specialties, along with reacting on the fly and confusing people into agreeing with them. Mako figured all three of those would be relevant by the end of this mess.

“So, uh, slight problem,” he said.

Kobus flinched, but regained their composure remarkably quickly. Mako was impressed, and a little put out. He doesn’t want them to feel unsafe or anything, but it would probably be easier to lie to them if they were distracted.

Then again, he was great with people, he could totally do this and still let them react. “It turns out Boring Mako is out on important Evening business right now, so we’re going to have to wait for him to get back. That cool?”

Kobus’ eyes narrowed, but they nodded. “I’ve waited five years to find out what’s wrong with Grace. I can wait another day.”

“Great, thanks.” Mako hadn’t expected to win an entire day’s reprieve that easily, but he definitely wasn’t complaining. “In the meantime, let me introduce you to myself.” He gave a big cheesy grin.

Kobus didn’t react. Mako couldn’t blame them, but even so, it was kind of disappointing. He didn’t get many chances to interact with people who knew about the others but hadn’t met them yet. This might have been his only chance to use that joke.

In the time it took for the ship to dock and them to make it to the exit, the other Makos were able to descend upon the hangar. They may not have known what to do with Kobus, but none of them were going to miss out on the chance to bother someone else.

When Kobus saw the crowd gathered around the ship, they straightened so abruptly Mako half expected them to topple backwards. Maybe springing the entire group on them straight away was a bad idea.

Kobus looked out over the Makos with a haughty expression, so predictably it was one of them who spoke up first. Mako couldn’t tell who it was from here. “You’re the Grace kid, right?”

Mako thought Kobus might have tried not to react, but they really did have a terrible poker face. He pretended not to see the wistful-angry-determined slideshow that flashed across their face before they fought it back down to neutrality. “I’m with the Hands of Grace, yes.”

The same Mako who had spoken nodded. “Cool. So you want us to Fog her so she’ll pay you more?”

Mako, whose attempts to stop the others from joking about Grace to Kobus’ face had clearly been doomed from the start, sighed. At least if they were yelling at someone, they weren’t thinking about where Old Mako was or why he couldn’t go straight to Sigilia with them.

“Why do all of you - right. Of course,” Kobus muttered. Mako nearly asked what conclusions they’d drawn, but they seemed like the sort of person who cared too much about being polite to admit to having opinions. It was wild. They were only, what, 16? Mako couldn’t imagine having to care that much about politeness at 16, and all his memories of being a teenager were manufactured by the evil school trying to control him.

No time to dwell on that thought, though, because Kobus was raising their voice to address the Mako crowd again. (It was just as well. Mako was too cool to waste time dwelling on something boring like that. Basically everyone he lived with had the same sob story, there was no point in being self-centered about it.)

“I know this seems like a game to you, but real people are suffering because of Grace. I want to help them.” Kobus hesitated, their hands twisting together. “I don’t have much I can offer, but if there’s anything you want, I’ll do everything I can to help you get it. I just need to fix Grace first.”

There was a thought. If Mako could convince Kobus he needed something rare and outlandish, that could buy them days, or even weeks. It would mean taking advantage of the traumatized kid’s need to be useful, but it was for their own good, so it evened out in the end, right? He could even pull some ‘the real treasure is the friends we made along the way’ bullshit. There was every chance they had little enough social experience to find it meaningful.

He filed it under the ‘needs improvement’ column, if only because he needed to make sure Kobus wouldn’t kill him for wasting their time so blatantly before he could commit.

“Do we really need to fix Grace?” another Mako asked. “What if we just… I don’t know, kidnap her or something?”

“Put her in time out until she learns how to play nice!” a third Mako called.

Kobus took a deep breath. “We can’t take away the leader of the Diaspora in the middle of a crisis. People are worried enough as it is.”

In a staggering show of restraint, no one pointed out that Grace was one of the things worrying them, though Mako was sure at least half of them were thinking it.

“Right,” Mako said. “Exactly. But there’s nothing we can do about it right now, so you might as well come relax while we wait for Buggy Original Release Mako. Do you want some soup? I’m pretty sure we have soup.” Not the most exciting snack, but the Makos were constantly squabbling over the best flavor of chips or candy or instant noodles, so it was hard to know what they’d have around at any given time. Soup, though? Soup was a cherished staple, if only because none of them cared enough to hoard it away from the others.

Mako didn’t explain any of that to Kobus, preferring to watch their confusion as they tried to follow the change in subject. “Fine. Soup. Why not. Just until the person who actually knows how to work Divines gets back, though.”

“Great!” He chose to hear only the part of the statement that was them agreeing with him. They’d learn how to lighten up eventually. He led them out of the docking bay and to the kitchen, ignoring the flurry of activity that broke out in the Mako Group Chat™ except to say “i told you so” in response to a comment on the fact that Kobus was basically a baby.

The kitchen was in decent shape that evening, which meant that there was a burner free of dirty dishes and only moderate overflow from the dishwasher. Kobus made a face, though they quickly stopped when they saw Mako looking at them. Mako did the charitable thing and ignored it. 

“Okay, give me a second to see what kind of soup we’ve got. Also, if you see something you’d rather have, let me know. There isn’t some kind of soup law in effect here. I’m not sure there are any laws in effect here, but especially no soup ones.”

Kobus shrugged. “I’m fine with anything.”

“Sure, but you’re the guest. If we can get you something better than fine, we will.” Mako rummaged through the pantry. “Let’s see, we have eucalyptus, snert, chicken noodle…” Huh. That was more soup than he’d expected, actually. Maybe one of them had developed a weird fondness for it after all. He’d have to figure out which so he could tease him about it later.

Lost in thought, it took him a second to notice how slow Kobus was to respond. “I’m good with anything,” they said, tone cautious. “Whatever’s easiest for you.”

“Kobus.” Mako turned around to give them an unimpressed look, but his pre-arranged expression was ruined when he saw that they were in the middle of unloading the dishwasher. “Oh, come on.”

Kobus quickly set down the plate they were holding. “Oh, sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.”

“I mean, you should probably ask before messing with people’s stuff or whatever, but that isn’t really the point. It’s not like I’m going to complain about having someone else do my chores.” Mako fought to keep his tone light as he continued, “But also, you’re a guest. It’s one thing if you were planning to stay for a long time, but since you’re only here for a day, you really don’t have to worry about it, you know?” There, he’d managed to implant the idea of them not going back in a totally natural and subtle way. He was killing it.

Kobus looked at him like he’d said Rigor-Aria’s new music was better than real-Aria’s Soundcloud releases. “You keep saying that. We aren’t friends; we both know I’m just here to ask a favor. I don’t even know how I’m going to pay you back for it. Until then, it makes sense for me to be as little of a burden as I can.”

“Well,” Mako said, stalling for time so he wouldn’t voice his initial reaction of ‘what the fuck.’ Like, he got it. Basically the first thing he’d done after being decanted from a weird clone pod and learning all his memories were fake was join a vigilante hacker team. Sometimes you had to prove things to yourself that didn’t necessarily make sense.

Still this one was both trivial and interfering with Mako’s very good plan for helping them in a larger and more permanent way, so he was willing to be a hypocrite this time. As soon as he got his thoughts back in order, because he’d already dragged this “well” out long enough that Kobus was starting to look annoyed.

“Who says we’re not friends?” he asked at last. “I think we bonded on the trip here, and we’ve got at least one more of those coming up. Maybe by the end we’ll be so close that you’ll be horrified at the idea of even touching my dishes.”

Kobus looked skeptical. “You don’t know anything about me. It’s just as likely that we’ll be sick of each other by the time we get back and you’ll wish you’d asked for more.” They exhaled, sharp and annoyed. “I know how this is going to work. I wouldn’t have approached you if I wasn’t prepared for it, so you can stop trying to coddle me.”

Now this, Mako remembered. It was even less fun from the other side. “Hey, no, that’s not it. You made it past all of us last time. I know you can handle yourself.” He waited until they’d settled down before he kept going. “You’re still a guest, though, and I like to look on the bright side, so you’re basically 70% of the way to a friend. That means we need to get to know each other, starting with what kinds of soup we like.”

Kobus squinted at him suspiciously, but Mako had a lot of practice keeping an open smile up, not to mention a ton of examples to show him how he usually failed at it so he could avoid those. Finally, they looked away, refusing to meet his eyes. “I… don’t actually know what half those flavors are.”

Which, sure, people have different life experiences, but Mako was fully prepared to believe the worst of Divines by now. “You’ll just have to try them all, then.”

“Isn’t that a huge waste of food?” Kobus asked. “I promise, I’m fine with whatever.”

“Look, there are nine of us here and also Lazer Ted. Someone will want soup they didn’t have to make themself.” Mako grabbed several cans at random. “Now come on, let’s do this before anyone gets bored and comes to bother us. We’re going for a relaxing soup environment here.”


End file.
